


Sailing Away to Key Largo

by SouthernCross



Series: Key Largo [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Awesome Darcy Lewis, Everyone should bring pie to the table, F/M, James curses a lot, Thanksgiving in august, grey in the beard is sexy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-18
Updated: 2018-08-18
Packaged: 2019-06-29 08:36:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15725823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SouthernCross/pseuds/SouthernCross
Summary: Darcy finds a lot to be thankful for six months after her heart was broken.





	Sailing Away to Key Largo

**Author's Note:**

> Consider this seriously AU after CW, like erase half of the movie and everyone is with everyone and yeah that's how it should have been. 
> 
> I own nothing and mean no harm. 
> 
> Please review and hit the little heart!

Holidays approached differently in the warmer climates. There was no hint for sweaters or groans of radiators as the cold weather set in. The days still hit 90° and her legs were as tan as they had been in July. So when her mother had called making excuses for not being able to cook their agreed upon Thanksgiving dinner Darcy had looked at the November date on her phone in shock. 

Days in the lab had always tended to run together and since she didn't even have the online courses she had been auditing, she had lost track of time. 

Darcy had lost track of months living in the Keys. 

No one had been more surprised or openly thrilled than Darcy when Stark Industries had approached Jane with a new super secret lab located in some remote part of one of the Keys. She hadn't know which one, the only Key she knew was West thanks to the one and only cool trip she took in high school. 

No sooner had they told Jane about the lab did they offer Darcy a job of her own. A position in New York with her own office, and she would even have an assistant! She had considered this to be the moment. The one where she would begin to make her mark on the world. She would stay in the city while Jane went off to play with the stars, and she would use her over paid job to try and change a little bit of the world in her special way. 

And if she had a smoking hot guy warming her bed at night than so much the better.

But he had proven to be no better than the assholes she had dated before. He had never made her any promises, had never made any assurances about them or the future. Those had been made by her, for them and so much the idiot was she for thinking they had been special. 

That she had been special. 

No, she had not been special.

Not even a little bit. 

So she had turned down her cozy office, work that would have involved her degree, in favor of an endless tan and pop-tart runs. It didn't hurt watching other people be brilliant. 

At least not as much as it used too. Darcy was big lips and bigger tits. 

You didn't need a degree when you had those. Bitterness had been her long-standing companion and she had reverted to it automatically during their first few weeks in the sun. Jane had even noticed it, that having been more of an indicator to Darcy than any side-long glance from their JBT’s.

Jane didn't notice anything outside of the work when she was in work mode so for her to have noted twice that Darcy sounded bitter had given her pause. 

Yeah, no. She was not going to be that person. The one that falls apart because they weren't part of a unit. No way. Especially not when she was absolutely certain he was doing fine without her. Whatever. His loss. 

Darcy had begun to exercise, tripling up on the sports bras. She bad been delighted to find how much aggressive she could take out on a punching bag. It was as rewarding physically as it was cathartic emotionally. 

It had seemed to her a painfully millennial thing to do but she took social media and made it her bitch. Between Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram she had gained a loyal base who enjoyed and valued her views on the socio and political climates. They were living in crazy times and she had been in the front row for some of the craziest. There were people out there who could appreciate her brain and her humor and her youth and it had done wonders for her self-esteem. 

He had thought her too caustic and entirely too young. One she couldn't do anything about and the other she didn't want to. She had thought him too reckless and unforgiving, neither of which he had shown any signs of changing. 

Still, thoughts went to him as she scrambled to purchase the last minute things she would need to put together some sort of Thanksgiving meal. 

Last Thanksgiving they had cooked side by side in the communal kitchen. She on her stuffing, him on the deviled eggs and cranberry salad. 

Last year she had been one half of a whole and she had been happy, happier than she had ever thought she could be as a couple. There had been a lot to be thankful for. 

Six months had healed a lot of the wounds, the time had forced scar tissue to grow over the open spots on her heart, but she knew she still loved him, missed him. 

The missing him pissed her off; he was an asshole and hadn't deserved her heart much less her tears. Especially when there was no way in hell he was missing her, but she couldn't just turn off her love. Darcy had tried, God knows, but he was still there, tucked into the small pocket of her heart she tried to ignore. She might not be in his but she hadn't figured out how to get him out of hers.

Dinner it turned out would be more of a brunch. Sleep hadn't come and she had started the bird much earlier than she had intended. Pulling Jane and Bruce, he had joined them a few months ago when he needed some solace and science, from the lab had been easier than she expected. Their JBT’s had come without any coercion so they were a mismatched group of geniuses and guns and one Darcy when food hit the table. 

All eyes had turned towards the door as the knock had come firm and fast. 

‘I’ll get it,’ Darcy had passed the bowl of mashed potatoes to Bruce on her way to the door. 

‘Whoever you are I hope you have pie,’ she grabbed the door knob. ‘You can never have too much pie at Thanks-’ the word died in the air between her and the person in the now open doorway. 

‘I don't have any pie.’

James, here, today.

Darcy slammed the door in his face, turning quickly around she moved to the kitchen and out the back door ignoring the words of concern and anger. 

The beach was a blurred sight, eyes filled with tears, but she couldn't deny the pull of the water. How could he be here?

How could he dare?

‘First, I'm an asshole.’

His voice was low and rough, she knew that meant there was real emotion in what he said. She hated that she knew that. She hated that it still mattered. 

‘Second, pushing you away because I was scared and thought you would be better off, safer, was a dick move and the worst mistake of my personal life.’

Such a James thing to say. Such a James thing to do, push her away, cut her so thoroughly she wouldn't fight for them but run. As stupid as it was she knew him, knew the mountain of baggage he carried with him and his words rang true, something had triggered his need to ‘protect’ her, it didn't excuse him but it made sense. 

‘Third, I'm an asshole.’

She smiled, he couldn't see it, her back was ro him, her eyes on the sea. But the smile and tears were there. 

‘Fourth, I've missed you. More than I thought possible. Big things, little things, all the the things in between I've missed.’

Darcy had missed him too. 

‘Fifth, Steve thinks I'm an asshole.’

At that she choked on a laugh or a sob. 

‘And it's a given that Clint and Tasha think I'm a mother fucking piece of shit asshole.’

Tasha had no doubt used several languages to convey her displeasure. She had shared some with Darcy in lengthy text messages they exchanged at odd hours of the night. 

‘Thor used words I'm not sure originated on this planet and Wilson, well he and Vision got real clever.’

She’d missed them, the Avengers, her friends. Their personalities and quirks had inspired and delighted her, endearing them to her in ways few people had. Darcy hasn't just lost a boyfriend and lover six months ago she had lost friends. Even Coulson, whose miraculous recovery from the dead, had warmed up to her and he had returned her ipod, finally. 

‘Why are you here?’

Was that her voice? So flat and cold, she hardly recognized it and was not surprised at the harsh intake of breath and shifting of plates as his arm reacted to the fist he was no doubt clenching. 

He had stepped closer to her, standing next to her, she absolutely noticed he stood to her right. A side he had avoided so often when they first started, their thing, until she had sat him down and explained in no uncertain terms, no his arm wasn't a weapon, no more than his other arm and yes let's explore the fun they could have with it. 

That was a memory she could have done without at that very moment. She could ignore the memory but she couldn't ignore him. The open collar of his white button down revealed tan skin and the leather cord around his neck, a present from her ‘just because’ and of course he had cut his hair, of course. 

She had subtly and not so subtly encouraged him to move away from the hot hobo (which was leaning dangerously into sexy Jesus which should never be a thing) and get a more updated cut. Now his hair was somewhere between where it had been and what it had looked like in the black and white photos in all the history books. 

And yeah she loved the scruff and oh my God did she see grey in his beard? But she digressed. 

‘I’m here for all the reasons I said. I'm here because I finally called in all the vacation and personal time I had coming and owed to me.’

Her eyebrows rose at that, he shrugged. ‘I'll have to go in if and only if Natasha calls.’ Darcy knew she would only do so if the world was ending for real and that was something, that was a lot. 

‘I'm here because you're here and so that's where I need to be, to grovel.’

That brought a smile back to her lips. She did like to see her Sergeant on his knees. 

Hers?

‘I'm here because I love you. I never stopped, never wanted too, never will and I don't want to be where you're not. I'm here because I hurt you and I need to fight for you.’

Darcy didn't speak, couldn't, but when she reached for his hand he laced his fingers with hers without hesitation. The metal cool against her skin even in the sun. It wouldn't be easy or quick, he had broken her heart and her trust, but he was here and that was something to be thankful for.


End file.
